'A Year in Space' to follow astronauts' journeys

Time magazine will follow astronaut Scott Kelly aboard the ISS and twin brother Mark on Earth.

Scott Kelly will start his mission to become the first American astronaut to spend a year space on March 27. (Photo: Time/'A Year in Space')

Astronaut Scott Kelly's attempt to become the first American to spend a year in space begins this Friday, with Time magazine planning to document the historic mission every step of the way.

The magazine announced a 12-month multimedia series across all its digital and print platforms, chronicling both Kelly's and cosmonaut Misha Kornienko's time aboard the International Space Station, their families back home, and the doctors and other specialists who will be monitoring their health. In addition, the site will also feature some nine hours with Scott, including 80 minutes of conversations with him aboard the ISS.

"Kelly and Kornienko will spend a year on the space station to better understand how the human body reacts and adapts to the harsh environment of space," NASA officials said in a statement. "Data from the expedition will be used to determine whether there are ways to further reduce the risks on future long-duration missions to an asteroid and eventually Mars."

Time will also be documenting Scott's twin brother Mark, a former astronaut himself, who will also be working with NASA back on the ground to provide data on how the two brothers' bodies will differ. According to the magazine, the twins' microbiomes will be analyzed via body waste.

“Giving urine and stool samples is an incredibly exciting thing to do,” Mark joked to Time, adding that he still misses "every day I spent in space.”

In a new trailer for the episodic documentary, Scott Kelly explains why this mission is so important to him.

"A lot of things that are very worthy endeavors do have risks, and I think it's important for our species to maintain our explorer-mindset, to be able to push our boundaries of technology and experience," he said. "I feel pretty fortunate that I'm here and I get to risk it all one more time."